The ISA Concept Will Be the Focus of Hacktiv8 After Funding

Hacktiv8, a startup known for hosting bootcamps for programming, secured $3 million in Pre-Series A funding (around 41 billion Rupiah at today's exchange rates) led by East Ventures. Also involved are Sovereign's Capital, SMDV, Skystar Capital, Convegerence Ventures, RMKB Ventures, Prasetia, and Everhaus.

Co-founder and CEO Hacktiv8 Ronald Isaac to DailySocial explained that the main focus of the funding this time was on the ISA (Income Share Agreement). A concept that is starting to be widely used for education funding.

"By increasing student demand through ISA, we can also increase the number of our schools. Currently we are building several new schools which will be opened in stages in 2020," explained Ronald.

The concept of ISA has been implemented in Hacktiv8. This concept takes the form of a profit-sharing contract between students and Hacktiv8 which allows students to defer paying school fees in advance, provided that they are paid later by dividing the monthly salary received after work.

The amount of this monthly salary distribution will be adjusted according to the income earned. Students enrolled in the ISA start paying once their income exceeds a certain amount, whereas those who can earn higher will not pay more than a certain limit.

"If our graduates get competitive salaries, we will get a good return on investment," added Ronald.

One of the things that Ronald wants to change is the concept that many paid institutions don't guarantee that graduates can easily find work. With the ISA concept, the institution or school is responsible for the success of the student, because after the student is successful, the school will only receive the payment.

For now Hacktiv8 claims to have more than 250 partner companies or hiring partners ready to recruit alumni. In addition, partner companies also participate in curriculum design in order to ensure the material being studied up to date and remain relevant to the industry.

Included in Hacktiv8's partners are Tokopedia, Gojek, Bukalapak, Payfazz, Xendit, KoinWorks, and several other companies.

Maintain consistency for reliable print programmers

Hacktiv8 developed Roland has been with Riza Fahmi since 2018. In the curriculum, Hacktiv8 teaches some of the latest technologies such as JavaScript, Node.js, Vue.js, and React. The bootcamps also encourage participants to consistently practice, spending 10-12 hours every day in 5-6 days for 12-18 weeks.

"Indonesia is one of the countries with a low number of engineers, when compared to the population. This condition is not only caused by a large population, but also because Indonesia only has a few graduates of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) study programs. ," explained East Ventures' Managing Partner Willson Cuaca.

Ronald added, for now, the demographics of Hacktiv8 bootcamp participants are mostly those who want to move or enter the world of technology or startup businesses with various backgrounds, ranging from Finance, design, marketing, and others who are trying to become programmers. They are also focusing on developing the ISA platform.

"Right now, we only run Hacktiv8 institutions with ISAs, only we are developing an ISA platform to help all other schools outside Hacktiv8 to be able to accept ISAs (in the future)," added Ronald.

In addition to bootcamps, one of Hacktiv8's expansion of wings in an effort to produce quality programmers in Indonesia is by presenting Kode.id. This programming learning platform is claimed to have 160 learning classes with a total of 200 hours.